Below Paris

Below the streets of Paris: rats, rats, rats. You are one of these rats, one of the Wet Tiles tribe. You and your tribe live under the streets of Paris, in the twisting, miserable tunnels that run deep below. Your tribe is situated in one of the upper levels, running adjacent to a busy metro station where the Tall-Things wander.

You survive day by day, feeding on scraps drifting down from above; on smaller pests stalking the other tunnels, or on - if hunger is gripping - smaller members of neighbouring tribes.

Your tribe is a mystical one, accompanied by a cadre of all-seeing shamans, whose numbers are chosen from birth. Their leader, Seeing-Things, remains hidden from the tribe, but he is always there, weaving his tales.

One lightless hour, Seeing-Things finds a vision - a going-to-happen. Foul things are climbing from the depths, where the tunnels run impossibly deep. He insists with pride that they, the family, will be the ones to fight back.

So a group of brave rats are chosen to descend into the winding blackness.

((Excellent, ladies and gentlemen! My first attempt at narrating. I hope this will turn out well, I really do.

Now - the premise is different. Your characters are rats. Not anthropomorphic rats. Ratty rats down to their four pink feet. They understand very little of the purpose of the world they live in, at least its human purpose. Here, the humans (or the Tall-Things, as they are coined) are as alien, and monstrous as rats are to us. Beware the Tall-Things!

I suppose you could call the setting urban fantasy with a dash of the usual Lovecraftian joy. There is magic in this world, and monsters, and dark, dark entities. Who knows what you’ll find the further you descend.

Feel free to create your own cards, as long as it fits within the context of a strange, rat-filled world. Have a look at the other nature cards to see the idea.

As for names, some examples of characters within this world to give you an idea: Seeing-Things, Chieftain Leader-in-all-Things, Feeling-all, Chewing-bones, Fire-burns, Fast-as-Water, etc. ))